Cast announced for premiere of Ayckbourn's 83rd play at Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre

A new play from Alan Ayckbourn opens at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre in September.

Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present is the author’s 83rd play, and premieres in the year that marks his 80th birthday.

Directed by the author, it will be performed by a cast of four: Jamie Baughan, Jemma Churchill, Russell Dixon and Naomi Petersen. Design is by Kevin Jenkins and lighting design by Jason Taylor. The Associate Sound Designer is Paul Stear.

It’s Micky’s 80th birthday, and he and his wife Meg are awaiting the arrival of their son, Adrian, and his new (and latest!) fiancée, Grace.

Adrian has, according to his parents, a certain reputation regarding women, and they feel meek, mild-mannered Grace should surely be warned of this. But are things really as they appear? As birthday follows birthday, the truth is finally revealed about Adrian, the suburban closet Lothario.

Alan said: “It’s no coincidence that this is a special year for me, being my 80th. I like to pin things on anniversaries, and I thought ‘why not birthdays?’

“But it’s a bit conventional to have one person maybe having his 20th birthday and his 50th and then 80th birthdays, so I thought it would be fun to do it backwards.

“Usually in plays, we see the cause first and the effects follow on, but in this case, we see the effect first and our first question is, just how did we get there?

“It’s really a story about a man who’s trying to deal with and understand women; it's a sort of companion piece to my 2017 play, A Brief History Of Women.”

Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present can be seen in the Round at the SJT, in rep, from Wednesday September 4 to Saturday October 5.

Tickets, priced from £10, are available from the box office on 01723 370541 and online at www.sjt.uk.com